


A Drop in the Ocean

by dustybandit



Category: BBS - Fandom, Banana Bus Squad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-29 09:38:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15070367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dustybandit/pseuds/dustybandit
Summary: This is an old fic I started writing back in 2016. The original story was written by PixieAmber on wattpad. She grew bored of the fic and stopped writing it, but she said I was allowed to re-write it and keep going so long as I gave her credit. So, credit for the main idea and her OC's Crystal and Riptide goes to her.Pretty much what happens is the guys move into one big house by the beach for a while, but things go a bit askew after they get involved with their new neighbor Crystal's personal life (she's a mermaid).I don't know if I'll keep writing this. Maybe if someone wants me to I'll pick it up again, I am a sucker for mermaids and I did stop writing before things get good.





	1. New Neighbors

**Author's Note:**

> Personally I don't like how this is written. I wrote it a long time ago and can't be bothered changing it, even though it screams 'amateur'. It's also how the original was written so i don't wanna change it for that reason too.

Evan’s P.O.V

“We have only been here a week and you’re already suspicious of the neighbors.” I sighed dejectedly and glanced at Johnathan from the corner of my eye.

“I don’t know man, something just doesn’t seem right about her. She always seems to just be staring at the ocean.” He responds, still watching the slim girl standing a few meters away, waves almost reaching her toes. Her long blonde hair moves gently in the breeze, the sunlight glistening off her skin like champagne in the light.

“Well, we do basically live on the beach. There’s not much else to look at.” I said grinning at him.

“Eh, maybe. She does have a nice ass though.” He said laughing quietly. I looked at his distant expression and laughed too.

“What are you two assholes laughing at?” Tyler asks, sitting down on the warm sand next to Johnathan.

“Nothing really.” Johnathan muttered, still looking at the girl.

“He reckons she’s got a nice ass.” I answer, nodding at the girl.

Tyler looked at her for a moment before smiling. “Well, she does. But who is she?’

“Not sure, all I know is she lives in the house next to us.” answered Craig walking up behind us, Marcel a few steps behind.

“I kinda wanna go talk to her.” Marcel mused, a dazed look in his eyes.

“You can try.” I laugh at his sudden confidence.

“Five bucks says he gets rejected” laughs Craig.

“Ten says he comes back with a boner.” Tyler shot back at Craig. Everybody laughed as they shook hands on it. Brock came and crouched down next to me.

“Want to get front row seats for this.” He laughed getting comfy in the sand.

“Shut the fuck up guys.” snapped Marcel, walking over to the mystery girl before his confidence disappeared.

                       *                            *                           *                              *                             *

Marcel’s P.O.V

“So, I’m guessing you like the ocean.” I smiled as I stood next to the mystery girl. She looked up at me and smiled sweetly back.

“I guess you could say that.” Her voice was gentle and melodious and fitted her perfectly.

“So what’s your name?” I asked, taking every detail of her face from her bright blue eyes to her perfect white smile.

“Crystal. Crystal Blue Lincoln.” She said with a chuckle.

“That’s a beautiful name for a beautiful person.” I smiled brightly at her. She looked away, a slight blush appearing on her freckled cheeks. “My name is Marcel, but my friends tend to call me Basically.”

“Basically?” she questioned, a quizzical look in her beautiful blue eyes.

“It’s a bit of a long story.” Looking down at her unsatisfied expression, I continued. “My friends and I play video games together often, and my gamer tag is BasicallyIDoWrk, so they sometimes call me Basically.”

“What a random name.” she grinned, looking out at the ocean. “Are those the people you live with in that mansion of a house next to mine?” she questioned.

“Yeah, that’s us, most of us.”

“Sorry I haven’t come over and introduced myself yet, I’m just kinda shy.” She looked down at her toes, rubbing her arm.

“That’s alright.” I glance back over at the guys only to see that everyone had gathered and were all watching me.” Hey, you could come introduce yourself now if you want. They’ve all gathered to watch me talk to you.”

“Why?”

“They wanted to watch in case I embarrassed myself talking to you. Such great friends.” I answered sarcastically, rolling my eyes in emphasis. She laughed and started blushing slightly.

“I guess I should go say hello then.” She looked kind of nervous but smiled softly at me. I gave her a reassuring smile in return.

“Don’t worry, they can be jerks but they’ll be nice to you.” I explained, turning to walk back to them. She looked up at me and we started walking.

They guys were talking loudly amongst themselves but started to quiet down as we approached.

“Everyone,” I practically shouted, making sure I had their full attention. “This is Crystal, our neighbor.” I announced, gesturing slightly to the red-faced girl. A quiet ‘hi’ was all that squeaked out of her.

“Hi!” Liu immediately responded in his squeaker voice, earning a laugh from Crystal.

“What’s up beautiful?” Johnathan asked, followed by a fit of his maniacal laughter. Crystal’s face went completely red and only got darker after Tyler pointed it out, which earnt him a harsh shove from Brock.

“Th-thanks” she stuttered out, looking away.

“So, how long have you lived here?” David asked, trying to distract her from those who were now arguing.

“Oh, only a few months.” She answered. “I’m renting the small house next to yours.”

“Well there’s only about five houses on this stretch of beach.” Tyler remarked. “And I haven’t seen anybody else around.”

“Do you know if there are people living in those houses?” I ask her, looking over to where they are. One of the houses was quite large, although not as big as our shared house, and the other two were slightly larger than Crystal’s house.

“No, they’re all empty now. One of them is up for sale, and the owners of the other two don’t visit often.” There was a slight lull in the conversation before Evan spoke.

“What do you do for a living?” he asked curiously.

“Um, I work part time at a nearby café. It’s not much, but it’s enough.” She answered, looking a little uncomfortable. There was another brief pause, before a realization struck me. I slapped my palm to my forehead, an unexpected movement which startled Crystal slightly.

“Oh, I’m such an idiot! I haven’t even introduced everybody yet!”

                         *                              *                             *                               *                               *

Time skip 

                        *                               *                             *                               *                               *

Crystal’s P.O.V

I sigh as I watch the sun start to head down towards the waterline.

“It’s getting late.” I mutter to no one in particular. I hear Evan sigh and get up.

“Well I guess you’ll be going soon then.” He reached down and offered me his hand, helping me to my feet. I agree quietly and dust the sand off my clothes. All around me the guys are slowly getting to their feet, flicking sand everywhere as they dust themselves off.

“It was very nice to finally meet all of you.” I say smiling softly at them.

“It was nice to meet you too.” Marcel responded.

“Hey, you should come over tomorrow, we could hang out and play videogames of something.” Tyler offered.

“That’s sounds like a great idea.” I reply, glancing at their giant house.

“Alright then. See you tomorrow.” Tyler said as turned and started walking, giving a small wave over his shoulder at me. The others soon followed, saying goodbye and see you tomorrow, until Lui was the only one left.

“A quick kiss before you go?” he asked, a shit-eating grin on his face. I rolled my eyes at him before quickly leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek. He looked up at me giggling like a child when the air was suddenly filled with shouting.

“HEY NO FAIR I WANT A KISS TOO!” Johnathan yelled, running back towards me while everybody else turned and watched.

“NO WAY SHE’S MINE!” Lui shouted back, wrapping his arms around my waist and holding me tightly. All the other boys burst out laughing and came back asking if they could have a kiss too. I was lifted into the air laughing madly while the boys argued amongst themselves who should get a kiss next. Eventually they calmed down, but wouldn’t let me go until I gave all of them a kiss of the cheek. They said goodbye again before walking back to their house. Lui walked backwards, watching me laugh until David nearly pushed him over. I smiled and shook my head slightly before walking over to my house. While we were neighbors, there was still a good bit of distance between our houses, there was between all five houses along this bit of beach. They were all on a slight rise, one long road running behind all the houses, the ocean almost at our front doors. My house was at the end of the road, the one closest to the cliffs of the headland. The area was sheltered and nicely out of the way from the main part of this small town, and that’s why I chose to come here.

I was still smiling as I walked up the weather-worn steps onto my porch, the wind chime I hung up tinkling peacefully. I opened the faded blue wooden door and walked into my living room, flopping down onto my couch. I really enjoyed hanging out with those guys, learning their names and their odd nicknames, and all sorts of things about them. They thought it would be a fun idea to live together in a big share house for a while, none of them are quite sure how long they are going to stay for. I hope it’s for a while. They seem like one gigantic, chaotic family, and a small bit of me really wants to become a part of it.

A sudden sadness and longing twists my stomach and stabs at my heart, bringing tears to my eyes. Memories start flooding my mind, tearing at wounds that are still healing. A longing for my family… it hurts so much, I miss them unbelievably.

I don’t remember much of my original family, I was too young. My mother told me that we were out on a boat, and something happened. It ended up sinking, and everybody died. Well, everybody except me. I was saved, not by a rescue team, but by a mermaid. She changed me, transformed me so I could survive. She took me back to her family, they adopted me and raised me like one of their own. They were the only family I had ever known. They were, until a few months ago.

I’m still not sure how it happened, we should have been safe. But they tracked us, they wouldn’t let us escape. They tore my family to shreds, only my older brother and I survived the shark attack. There was so many of them, so much blood…

I curl into a ball, tears streaming down my face. It hurts, it hurts so much. There was so much blood, I couldn’t see. I tried to help, but there was nothing I could do. Cole blames me, I know he does. That’s why he left me for dead, he never liked me anyway. If it wasn’t for my gift I would have died, just like everybody else…

I take a shaky breath. I can’t let this haunt me. They are gone, there is nothing I can do about it. I sit up and wipe away my tears. They wouldn’t want me to mourn them, they would want me to find him, so we can still be a family. I can’t stay on land forever. I shakily get to my feet, and go into my bedroom. Tomorrow, I will go back into the ocean, I will swim again, even if it is only for a little while.


	2. Early Morning Swim

Crystal’s P.O.V

My blaring alarm wakes me abruptly. I reach over and slap at the snooze button until it shuts up. I roll on to my back and stare at my roof, listening to the waves crash against the sand, the ocean calling me to its depths. The red lights on my alarm tell me it’s just past six, so it’s still dark outside but dawn is not far away.

I roll out of bed and grab a black one-piece from my chest of drawers, swiftly putting it on. I grab the large beach towel out from the bottom drawer and put it in an airtight plastic bag. I’m going to need to dry myself off somewhere else, so the guys don’t find out. There’s a small, sheltered patch of sand at the bottom of the cliff face where I can dry off unseen. I walk out the front door, checking to see if the coast is clear. Like usual, nobody is around. I smile in relief, a small knot of anxiety forming in my stomach. I haven’t gone into the ocean since it happened, but I can’t let my fear control me. I need to face then, I need to find out what happened to Cole.

I walk cautiously towards the water, torn between wanting to throw myself into it and throwing myself back into bed. I keep walking, the cold water flowing around my toes, my ankles, up above my knees. I dive into the cold water, and I can feel my legs starting to fuse together. It isn’t painful despite the fact that my bones are changing shape. It’s almost pleasant, it feels sort of like a bath bomb going off around my legs, a similar sensation around my neck as my gills form. After a few seconds it’s over, and I look down at my shimmering blue tail. I smile and slowly begin swimming around to the little rocky alcove, throwing my towel onto the sand. Unease still twists away at my insides, but slowly disappears as I approach a small reef that formed in the shelter of the headland. While most fish hide from humans as they swim over their reefs, fish tend to come over and greet merpeople. Many of the fish swim over to me and brush up along my tail, a small friendly gesture as I swim amongst the colorful coral. After a few minutes I surface and look around, and seeing that the sun is now up I decide to head back to shore.

As I’m swimming back I notice a figure standing on the beach. They are wearing a blue hoodie, so I take a guess and say it’s Johnathan as he was wearing the same thing yesterday. He spots me and waves, and without thinking I wave back. I suddenly realize what I’ve done and how dangerous the situation is. _How long has he been watching me? Did he see my tail?_  In my moment of panic I didn’t sense a large figure swim up to me. Next thing I know I’m being dragged back under the waves, a large pain shooting through my tail. I try to fight the figure off but they swim around me and stab the side of my tail with a small knife. I scream in pain as blood starts to stain the water red. I break free of their grip and swim as fast as I can towards the shore. I glance over my shoulder to see a black eyed, black tail merman following in hot pursuit. He grabs the end of my tail and tries to stab me again, but I twist out of his grip still heading for the shore. I turn to avoid hitting a rock, but he went over it and dived down on top of me, smashing me into the sand. I try to escape his grip but he has me pinned. Clouds of blood began to obscure my vision as he tries to tie my hands together. I wriggled underneath him, panic surging through me. A loud splashing sound approaches us and I look to where it is coming from to see a pair of legs slowly wading towards me. The merman let go of me and started swimming back out to the deep waters, flashing a sharp toothed grin at me as he disappeared. The legs stop next to me and a pair of arms grab my shoulders, lifting me out of the water. I squirm, trying to get out of the person’s grip before they see my tail.

“Crystal, it’s okay, it’s me Johnathan!” he exclaims, trying to get me to calm down. “Are you hurt? You looked like you were in trouble.”

“I’m okay, let me go!” I continue to struggle out of his grip, but he holds me tighter.

“You’re bleeding!” he exclaims. All my blood has clouded the water so my tail is temporarily hidden. A dull throbbing sensation begins in my head, and I start to feel woozy. He adjusts his grip and starts to drag me to shore despite my protests, but I’m quickly losing the energy to fight him. He senses this and moves faster.

As he drags me ashore, I fight one last time, throwing myself to the side and slipping out of his grip. He turns quickly and tries to catch me, but I land face first in the sand, stars flying across my vision.

“Crystal! Are you-” he stops abruptly, staring at my tail. I lift my head up to look at him, he stares back in shock. He opens his mouth to say something but no words come out. I would try to defend myself, to explain what I am to him, but I’ve lost too much blood and all I can manage is a faint ‘help, please…’

He snaps out of his trance and starts shouting for the guys to help him. He bends down and picks me up bridal style, carrying me back to his house. As he reaches the steps up to his house, Evan bursts out the front door and John is telling him something, but I can’t make out any words. The last thing I remember is distant gasps of shock and the terrible feeling deep inside me because they all know what I really am.

                        *                               *                             *                               *                               *

Johnathan’s P.O.V

“Go get towels and the first aid kit!” I shout as I push past a stunned Evan into the house. I see David and Marcel dart out of the room, probably to get the things I asked for.

“What happened?” Tyler shouted, voice laced with worry as he rushed down the stairs, Lui and Craig following closely behind. They race into the room, but stop abruptly and gasp in shock once they see what’s in my arms.

“What the fuck?” Evan said, coming out of his trance slightly but still staring at her tail.

“I don’t know. She looked like she was having trouble swimming so I swam out to see if she was okay and… then… this…” I trailed off, completely lost for words.

“Over here.” Brock called out, getting everybody’s attention. He had taken a bunch of beach towels and laid them across the couch. I quickly moved over to him and laid Crystal on the towels. David and Marcel came back into the room, Marcel handing me the first aid kit and David with his arms full of towels and bandages which he dropped all over the floor once he saw Crystal. Everybody was standing in a semicircle around her unconscious body, staring at her in confusion and mild wonder. Brock snapped out of the trance first and grabbed a towel from next to his feet and began drying her tail and trying to stop the blood that was pouring out of two large gashes on the side of her tail. Others soon followed and began drying her off. I knelt down and opened the first aid kit, looking for something to fix the cuts.

“What the actual fuck.” Tyler said, still staring at her.

“There’s no way that’s a real tail.” David breathed out. “It's gotta be fake.”

No sooner had he said this did her tail start emitting a soft blue light, and in a few seconds it was gone, normal legs in its place. A quiet ‘wow’ was whispered out by half the people in the room. I hadn’t even noticed Craig had taken the first aid kit from me until he was stitching up the gashes that were now on her right thigh. One he had finished he rubbed some ointment over it and wrapped bandages around her leg.

“Did that really just happen?” Lui asked anybody who may have had an answer. I felt like my entire life had been turned upside down in the span of a few minutes. I stayed kneeling on the ground next to her body as Craig packed up the first aid kit and Brock gathered up all the bloodied towels. Evan moved away and started mopping up all the drops of blood off the wooden floor. The rest of us just stared at her, still trying to process what we had just seen. All I could do was hope she would explain everything when she woke up.

“But… mermaids don’t exist…” David mumbled to himself, still in disbelief that any of that had actually happened.

“I guess they do.” Marcel responded to him, just as confused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The cringe is a bit less but still real


	3. A Crash Course in Merpeople

David’s P.O.V

I sat in an armchair next to Crystal’s unconscious body. It’s been four hours since Johnathan carried her into the house, the smell of blood still taints the air. I stare at the bandages tied around her thigh, still trying to process what I had seen. I assumed it was one of those fake tails that people sometimes wear, but it had vanished and it had looked _so real_. Scales as blue as the sky, just like her eyes. Her hand twitched slightly, as it had occasionally done for the past hour.

Brock saw the twitch and groaned loudly, resuming his pacing. “We can’t leave her here like this! She lost too much blood, we need to take her to a hospital.” He stated yet again, his concern obvious on his face.

“Brock, for the last time we can’t risk it.” Evan sighed, moving over to him to try and calm him down.

“We don’t know what might happen, what if they somehow find out?” Lui explained again.

“But we can’t just leave her like this! What if she dies?” Brock flopped down onto a chair, head in his hands. Evan stood next to him, one hand on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him.

“She’s not gonna die brock.” Craig’s muffled voice spoke from under the pillow he had thrown on his face. “I stitched her wounds, she’s not bleeding anymore. She just needs time to heal.”

“I still can’t believe she’s real.” I murmured, and if anyone heard they didn’t acknowledge me.

The room was once again filled with a tense silence, broken only by Brocks pacing.

                        *                               *                             *                               *                               *

Crystal’s P.O.V

The first thing I became aware of is the sharp pain in my right leg, quickly followed by the sensation of absolute exhaustion. I try to lift my hands up, but my arms feel like they are filled with lead. I groan loudly as I lift my left arm to my face, rubbing my eyes, trying to figure out why I feel so terrible.

“She’s awake!” somebody shouts nearby, and I become aware of people moving to surround me. I force my eyes to open and blink multiple times, trying to clear my vision.

“Are you okay Crystal?” a familiar voice asks. I tilt my head to the side and find myself staring into Tyler’s intense blue eyes. A groan is all I can manage as an answer. He helps me to sit up straight, a movement that left me feeling lightheaded. I open my eyes and notice the bandages wrapped around my leg. At first, I can’t figure out why they are there, but then the memories come crawling back. My eyes go wide as panic flares up inside me, and is only made worse by David's question.

“Are you really a mermaid?” he asked, voice quiet and filled with wonder and uncertainty. I sigh and rest my head on my hand, trying to figure out the best way to respond to this.

“I…uhh…oh man…” I pinch the bridge of my nose, the panic mixing with dread. I quickly try to come up with a plausible excuse, but my brain moves as quickly as honey. Accepting the inevitable, I nod.

Some of the guys move away from me as if they still can’t believe it, even though they’ve already seen my tail. David leans back, lifting his hands above his head and looking away. I hide my face with my hands, feeling terrible, both physically and mentally. After what feels like an eternity, someone speaks.

“So mermaids are real.” Lui states.

“Yes.” Is all I can say. The room goes quiet for a while, until Lui mutters ‘I’m still having trouble believing it’ from the corner of the room.

“I don’t blame you. We do the best we can to hide ourselves from humans. Very few of us actually live on land.” Another pause.

“How long was I out for?” I ask them.

“Five hours.” Johnathan answers. I stare at him in shock, and he just nods at me. _Five hours?! How much blood did I lose?_

After another uncomfortably long pause, Evan speaks.

“You say most mermaids don’t live on land, so why do you?” Evan asks. I sigh, trying to figure out what to tell them. Eventually I decide since they already know more than most humans ever will, I might as well tell them the whole truth. I take a deep breath, and tell them what happened to my family and how I’ve been too scared to go into the water since. They listen in silence, giving me sympathetic looks as I fight back tears recalling the shark attack. Once I was finished they sat quietly, nobody sure what to say. I hadn’t noticed until this point that Tyler was holding one of my hands, gently running his thumb over the back of my hand. It was a very soothing motion and helped to calm my unease.

 “Okay, so you’re a mermaid. I can understand that. What I want to know is what happened to you. John told us it you were having trouble swimming, and you looks like you got stabbed.” Craig questioned, halfheartedly gesturing to my leg.

“Well, I think I did. I’m not quite sure what happened, I was just swimming when this demon-eyed blacktail swam up behind me and started attacking me. I tried to get away, but he chased me and pinned me down. When Johnathan came over he just left.”

“He just swam away?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s a bit weird.” I just nodded in agreement.

“Was he still a mermaid?” Marcel asked.

“Huh?”

“You called him a blacktail like he’s something completely different.”

“And also while you were telling us about your family you said something like ‘if it wasn’t for your gift you would have died’ and I’m really confused about that.” Brock interupted, a puzzled look on his face.

I rubbed my eyes, bone-deep fatigue and the start of a headache making me want to curl up and sleep. I knew they would have a lot of questions, but I wasn’t expecting so many difficult ones so quickly.

“Oh man, this is gonna take a while. You guys might wanna get comfy.” The guys shuffled about, dragging chairs closer or sitting on the ground. I took a deep breath and tried to get my brain to start working before attempting to explain.

“I’ll talk about gifts first. You see, once a merperson reaches a certain age, usually around puberty, they develop or discover their gift. It’s sort of like a magical ability. Some are more uncommon, and some are naturally stronger than others. There are so many types of gifts it would take me the rest of the day to list them. My gift is that I’m a healer. I just sorta wave my hands over an injury and I fix it. I’m not very powerful and can’t make people better if they’re sick, and I don’t trust myself to mend broken bones or internal injuries, but cuts and bruises I can fix almost instantly.”

“So can you fix your leg?” Johnathan asked me.

“That’s the thing. While I can fix others before they can say ‘ouch’, I can’t actually heal myself. I do recover from injuries abnormally fast, and since I got my gift I haven’t been sick at all, but no I can’t magically fix my leg. Give it a day or two and it’ll be alright though. But back to explaining things.” I move my hands around and try to get the puddle of honey that is my brain to function properly.

 “Okay, so, the color of a mermaid’s tail is quite important as it tends to reflect their personality type. If someone has a brightly colored tail, they tend to be loud and outgoing. Lighter colours mean the person tends to be shyer, but are kindhearted. Dark colours suggest a deeper side to a person. They tend to be the more introverted, mysterious type. Of course these are just generalizations, there can be exceptions especially with the darker colours.

"A tail color is not fixed, they normally change over time as the merperson changes, but the important thing to note about tail colours is whether or not someone has a pure black or white tail. Those merpeople are extremely powerful, so we do tend to refer to them in a way that may make it sound like they are something different. Now puretails – that’s both of them – are very rare and despite being extremely powerful, are not able to form legs and walk on land. Nobody’s ever born a puretail, and they only form after significant change has happened in that merperson’s life. Whitetails are the rarest, and they tend to be the leaders of the merpeople and are greatly admired for their pure hearts. But blacktails are the opposite. They are fueled by spite or vengeance against those who wronged them before they turned. They usually have a specific goal and will not stop until that goal has been achieved, no matter how many people are hurt or killed in the process.

“The thing that I’m really confused about is the merman who attacked me. I have never seen him before, so he had no reason to target me. And his eyes, they were solid black. I have never even _heard_ of something like that.” I lean back and stretch my arms above my head, looking at all their faces, watching them process what I have said. “Sorry if that was a bit much too fast, I know I can go into too much detail about things and make thing overcomplicated.”

“No, that’s okay, just gimmie a second.” Evan said, raising a finger at me. I could almost see the gears tuning inside his mind as he processed what I had said.

“Yeah, that’s a lot to take in.” Marcel said, looking at me with wide eyes. I gave him a sheepish smile before groaning and rubbing my forehead, my headache swiftly turning into a migraine.

“Are you alright?” Brock asked, looking concerned.

“Yeah, just got a headache. I should probably go home and rest.” I gave him as reassuring a smile as I could manage.

“Let me walk you back.” Tyler offered, standing up from beside me, still holding my hand. I look at him for a second before agreeing. Tyler helped me to my feet, steadying me as I swayed. I said a quick goodbye to the others before Tyler guided me out the front door and down the steps, making sure I didn’t accidentally fall.

Tyler offered to carry me back, but I politely refused. I knew my leg had healed up plenty while I was unconscious, and while it was still sore, I would be fine walking back to my house. After a few seconds he offered again, I still refused. I tried to ignore it, but the pain in my leg quickly increased until it reached the point where I was having trouble walking. He kept insisting that I shouldn’t be walking, and I kept insisting that I was fine, my house was only a couple of meters away. Tyler huffed at my stubbornness and, despite my protests, picked me up and carried me to my house, up my veranda steps and to my front door, where he carefully put me down.

“You didn’t need to carry me, I was doing fine.” I gave him a stern look.

“You were limping like your leg was broken.”

“You’re exaggerating.”

“Maybe.” I tried to be angry at him, but all annoyance melted away when I saw his smile. I reluctantly thanked him, he just grinned at me. “You’ll be okay from here?”

“Of course.”

“Okay, but I’m gonna come check on you tomorrow.”

“If you insist.” I turned to open my door, but paused when I felt Tyler step closer and wrap his arms around me.

“I was really worried when John brought you in. there was a lot of blood and even though Craig kept insisting you’d be okay, I was so worried you were gonna die.

“It’s okay Tyler, I’m okay.” I turned around in his arms and hugged him back. “Everything’s alright. You’ll see, in a few days my leg will be back to normal.”

“I know. It’s still weird to think about.” He let go of me and looked at me with his soft blue eyes. I squeezed his hand to reassure him, before turning around and opening my door. I stepped inside and turned around to face him.

“See you tomorrow.” I said, one hand still on the door.

“Seeya.” He said, turning and walking down the steps. I watched him walk for a few seconds, before softly shutting the door and heading directly for my bed, the exhaustion making me feel like if I didn’t get there in a few seconds, I was gonna collapse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big yikes


	4. Stitches

Tyler’s P.O.V

“So, you gonna go check on Crystal?” Nogla asks from the couch, hearing me come stomping down the stairs.

“Yep.” I answer, sliding on a pair of flip-flops.

“Tell her I say hi!” Craig calls from the top of the stairs. I roll my eyes as I open the front door and step out into the bright sunlight. The waves crash loudly on the shore as I walk over to Crystal's house. Even from here I can hear her wind chime tinkling in the breeze.

Her front steps creak loudly as I walk up them. I reach out to knock on her door but hesitate, suddenly anxious. I’m not sure how to feel about the whole her being a mermaid thing. I collect my thoughts before knocking. She shouts ‘it’s open’ from the other side, so I open the door and step inside.

 “Make yourself at home, I’ll be out in a second.” she calls through a doorway to my left, which I presume is her bedroom.

I take a deep breath and look around her house. Compared to the other houses in the area, this one is quite small, but it’s clearly big enough for her. Sunlight streams through an open window casting beams of light across her living room area. It pools on a soft brown couch in the middle on the room, the patchwork blanket thrown over the back casting patches of colour onto the white walls.  A variety of books, shells and other items sit on various shelves along the wall. I wander over towards where the room meets the kitchen, and lean over the half-wall that separates them.

“Sorry about that.” Crystal says walking into the room. She’s wearing a flowing green dress and has a towel wrapped around her head. She walks into the kitchen and starts looking through a cupboard. “Is everything alright?” she asks, not looking away from what she’s doing

“Yeah, just came to check on you.”

She looks up from the cupboard and flashes me that perfect smile. “I’m okay. I told you I’d be fine, you don’t need to worry about me.” She shut the cupboard she was looking in and opened the one next to it.

“I know, but I’m not the only one who was worried about you. The others wanted me to check on you just to make sure.” She continued searching through the cupboard before shutting it with a sigh.

“What are you looking for?” I asked.

“My first aid kit. Or my sewing kit. Whichever I can find first.” She left the kitchen and walked past me and began examining the shelves. “Aha!” she reached up and took a dusty box off the shelf and sat down on the couch. She opened it and tipped the contents of the box onto a small coffee table, searching through the mess before grabbing something and beckoning me closer.

“See, look. Told you I heal fast.” She moved her legs so the stab wounds on her thigh were easily visible. Except, they didn’t look like stab wounds anymore. They had scabbed over and looked like she had only fallen over and grazed her side. Looking at it made me feel slightly queasy again, so I looked up at her face instead.

“That’s a bit freaky.”

“Yeah, but you get used to it.” She moved so she could see her wounds better before repositioning the thing in her hand, which I now notice are a small pair of scissors. She opened the blades and moved them down towards her leg.

“Whoa whoa, what are you doing?” I ask, my stomach suddenly turning like I was going to throw up.

“Removing the stitches,” She points with the scissors to the black threads on either side of the scabs. “Whoever stitched me up did a really good job.”

“That was Craig. Also he says hi.”

“Tell him I say hi back.” She smiled, looking out the window towards where our house was for a moment, then looking back to her wound and without hesitation she cuts the threads and rips the first stitch out of her skin. My stomach lurches and I gag.

“I can’t watch this.” I say before gaging again. Crystal laughs at my reaction before telling me I should probably go then.

“You came and checked up on me, now go before you throw up on my floor.” I briefly look back at her and immediately regret it, seeing her pull another stich out of her leg. I cover my mouth and race out her door and onto the beach, jumping over the steps in my rush to be away from the horrible sight. I hear her shout a farewell at me as I start moving back to my own house, still coughing and trying not to puke.

I stumble up the front steps and open the front door to see almost everyone is downstairs. Someone notices me enter and everyone starts asking me questions.

“Hey Tyler.”

“Oh, is Tyler back?”

“How’s Crystal?”

“That was quick.”

“How is her leg?”

“Is it healed?”

“Are you alright?”

“Wow, you look terrible.”

“Are you feeling okay?”

I move into the kitchen and stand next to the sink, waiting for my stomach to settle. I hear the others talking quietly to each other in the other room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I never finished this chapter, sorry about that.  
> So that's all I wrote, but as I said before I'd be willing to start writing this again if someone wants me to. leave a comment or a kudos if you're curious and wanna see more, otherwise i'll probably just leave it at that.


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